Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

by Brian Greene

Some conclude that Boltzmann brains are much ado about nothing. Sure, this perspective acknowledges, Boltzmann brains can form. But ease your mind. You are definitely not one of them. Here’s how to prove it: Look out on the world and take in all you see. If you are a Boltzmann brain, the odds are overwhelming that a moment later you won’t exist. A brain that can last longer is a brain that’s part of a larger and more ordered support system and thus requires a yet rarer fluctuation to even lower entropy, making its formation that much more unlikely. So if your second glance at the world seems much like your first, your confidence that you are not a Boltzmann brain increases. Indeed, according to this perspective, every next moment of a similar sort makes your argument stronger and your confidence greater.